Axel Disasi began life at West Ham United with a crucial win in the context of the Premier League’s relegation battle.
Starting Disasi was a risk for Nuno Espirito Santo, given West Ham United’s Deadline Day loan signing hadn’t played a Premier League game since April 2025.
Indeed, the idea of the Hammers losing at Burnley – particularly after relegation rivals Nottingham Forest dropped points on Friday night – was hardly worth thinking about.
Big Axel bullies Burnley! ✋
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Lesley Ugochukwu of Burnley in action with Axel Disasi of West Ham United during the Premier League match between Burnley and West Ham United at Turf Moor on February 07, 2026 in Burnley, England.
While the Irons were always likely to be favourites for the game at Turf Moor, the sheer magnitude of the game meant that any potentially dubious selection call was something of a gamble.
However, the decision to start the Frenchman in central defence paid off. Though he wasn’t tested too much, Disasi hardly put a foot wrong as West Ham beat Burnley 2-0 thanks to goals from Crysencio Summerville and Taty Castellanos.
It marked a return to elite level football for a player who had previously been limited to just U21s football at Chelsea and Disasi revelled in it after the game.
Axel Disasi’s simple one-word message after West Ham United debut
A whopping 291 days after his last appearance at Premier League level, Disasi was naturally in the mood to celebrate on social media platform Instagram.
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The 27-year-old captioned several images from the game and simply captioned it: “Football.”
That felt telling. However privileged the general public think players of this level are, not being able to do your job for so long for little good reason cannot have been nice on a human level.
Some of the defender’s former Chelsea teammates were seemingly pleased, too.
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West Ham players celebrate after Crysencio Summerville scores against Burnley.
Photo by Kate McShane/Getty Images
Compatriot Christopher Nkunku, now at AC Milan, responded with a message of support that translates to: “We left again”. A rougher translation could read: “Here we go again.”
Current Blue Malo Gusto, meanwhile, reacted with several love hearts.
Tottenham’s Mathys Tel added: “Real” and France forward Marcus Thuram also responded with a love heart.
Axel Disasi playing for West Ham against Burnley.
Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
Axel Disasi stats on his West Ham United debut
Nuno was impressed with Disasi’s West Ham debut and for good reason.
The quality of the opposition does have to be taken into account but his statistics from the game make for positive reading.
As per FotMob data, he made one block, four clearances and three recoveries. No one who played for more than 45 minutes in the match boasted a better passing accuracy than the France international either (97%).
Manchester United’s visit to east London on Tuesday will provide a much sterner test but this was a fine return to action for a player who has had to watch on from the sidelines for almost a year now.
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